The hour of need arrives in the Phillippines

It is difficult to look at the scenes of utter devastation in the Philippines and not recall a landscape of great similarity that we all saw when Katrina swept away the Mississippi Coast on that late August day of fury.

The memories are painful as we recall the loss of loved ones, and precious possessions that were forever gone when the storm had passed by. The Mississippi Coast and the Philippines will be forever connected by the two named storms - one a hurricane, the other a typhoon, that are now recorded as the most intense ever.

Hurricane Camille, the previous killer storm that struck our coast in 1969, and Typhoon Haiyan both recorded winds of nearly 200 mph, and the storm surge in each wrought great destruction across a wide territory. It appears that Haiyan may have been even more intense than Camille, and it resulted in unthinkable carnage, with many thousands believed dead.

While we watch the images of survivors in videos and photographs and feel the incredible empathy that results from our shared experience in the wake of such a massive natural disaster, there is something that we all can do right now.

That involves writing checks to help.

All of us in South Mississippi are forever indebted to those who helped us in our hour of greatest need, and so we now have an opportunity to help those in the Philippines who are experiencing their hour of greatest need.

If you have a favorite charity that is responding to the disaster, we hope you will support them. The American Red Cross is a reliable charity that provided much aid to us after both Camille and Katrina, but there are many, many more to whom we owe so much, and if you wish to make a payment on our debt to any of these, we sincerely hope that you will.

The need is now and it is overwhelming, so please do what you can to help.

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The hour of need arrives in the Phillippines

It is difficult to look at the scenes of utter devastation in the Philippines and not recall a landscape of great similarity that we all saw when Katrina swept away the Mississippi Coast on that late